Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) rolled out a campaign video Wednesday that takes him to the streets of San Francisco to use the city’s homeless problem to slam California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
The one-minute spot shows DeSantis standing in San Francisco after a visit in which the GOP presidential candidate says he saw people using heroin, smoking “crack cocaine” and “defecating on the street.”
“The city is not vibrant anymore,” DeSantis says. “It’s really collapsed because of leftist policies, and these policies have caused people to flee this area. They don’t prosecute criminals like they do in most parts of the country, and the wreckage is really sad to see.”
“It just shows you that policies matter. Leadership matters. They are doing it wrong here,” he adds.
DeSantis also took a shot at Newsom by saying the problems in San Francisco were a reason so many people were moving from California to Florida.
DeSantis and Newsom have battled for a year, with the California governor running ads on Florida last year decrying the Republican for policies that he said targeted LGBTQ rights, voting rights and abortion, among other things.
“Republican leaders — they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors. I urge all of you to join the fight, or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,” Newsom said in the spot that aired on Fox News.
The Florida governor, for his part, has shown he sees Newsom and California as worthy foils for elevating his own national stature. He doubled down with the new video on Newsom’s turf, which came during a fundraising trip by DeSantis to California.
DeSantis made fundraising stops Monday in Sacramento and the Bay Area. On Tuesday, the governor was slated to attend fundraisers in San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles, according to The Associated Press.
Newsom said last week he would debate DeSantis, and DeSantis fired back telling Newsom to “stop pussyfooting around” on whether he is going to run for president in 2024.
California is the nation’s largest state by population, and it also has the largest estimated homeless population in the country.